Hideo Kojima May Work on Metal Gear Solid 5

We already shared a report indicating that Hideo Kojima may not be working at present on a long awaited Zone of Enders sequel.

That's just one of a number of games the Metal Gear creator isn't working on.

He's also not working directly on Metal Gear Solid Rising. In an interview with Japan's Weekly Famitsu magazine this week, Kojima said of the Xbox 360 and PS3 slashing action title, "I'm not making it. As executive producer, I'm leaving it up to the youngsters."

For those looking forward to Rising, don't take this to mean that Kojima is leaving Rising up to rookies. Actually, the game's producer, Shigenobu Matsuyama, was working right next to Kojima as far back as 1991. Rising's director, Mineshi Kimura, has been with the Metal Gear Solid series since the latter part of the original PlayStation title's release.

Kojima also isn't working directly on Castlevania Lord of Shadows. As previously detailed, this rethinking of Castlevania is being produced by Dave Cox in England and developed by Spanish developer Mercury Steam. Regarding Kojima Productions' role on the game, Kojima said in the same Famitsu interview, "We're advising them in a variety of ways, but are of the stance that Dave and Mercury Steam have the final say."

This one may be a bit hard to believe, but Kojima also may not be working directly on Metal Gear Solid 3DS. This is tough to believe because it was widely reported at E3 that he's the game's director. In the same Famitsu interview (yes, it's quite long), Kojima revealed that he was merely the director of the E3 demo. Regarding his role on the game as a whole, he said "What will happen from here on out is not set."

As with Rising, you shouldn't necessarily take this to be bad news for the 3D Metal Gear Solid 3. The demo was actually created by staff members of the Peace Walker team, coming straight off their work on the PSP title. They managed to push the 3DS hardware quite far, upping the detail on backgrounds and characters over the PS2 original. Said Kojoima of the character models, "The high level models are about the same quality as the stuff we made on the PlayStation 3, although it's tough to see this. If we'd had a bit more time, we could have made something better."

Even though he may or may not have much to do with its final development, Kojima did share a few hints with Famitsu about what we can expect from the game. Kojima Productions will be keeping the Metal Gear Solid 3 story the same while adding things like the co-ops play system from Peace Walker, 3D, and "portable-like elements." Development on the game won't be horrendously long. It won't be at the 3DS launch, but Kojima said that he feels it must come out within a year of that.

So what is Kojima definitely working on? This was actually the main topic of this week's Famitsu interview, and despite four pages of interview text, Kojima managed to get away with saying very little.

We know that Kojima's current project is for home consoles. What console? You're going to have to guess for now!

Kojima also told the magazine that his new project may end up being Metal Gear Solid 5, or it may be something original.

Regardless of having not decided this important element, he still managed to say, "The next project is amazing. The plan is pretty much solidified."

Notably, the engine is already running. The development staff is currently making technological preparations.

Even more intriguing, he said "The next thing after Peace Walker is something great. It's a revolution." He clarified that he's referring to a gameplay revolution, adding "We'll be doing things that we couldn't do in Peace Walker."

As with Metal Gear Solid 3DS, the wait for this Kojima mystery project may not be as long as you're expecting. Said Kojima, "I'll be slowly making my game on a console. However, even though I say slowly, it can't take three years. Only Japanese companies are taking time. Overseas, they don't take so much time for development. Assassin's Creed saw an announcement at E3 even though one was just released last year. With this in mind, I believe you can't take more than a little over two yeas for development."

Famitsu computed this to mean a possible release time frame of 2012, or possibly year-end 2011, for the new game, whatever it is.

It's definitely not a Zone of Enders sequel, though. Kojima confirmed this in Famitsu too, saying (using ZOE2's Japanese name of "Anubis"), "Regarding Anubis and so-forth, sorry -- those will be pushed a bit into the future."

So there you have it. Hideo Kojima is working on a console game of some form. Expect the teases to continue for quite some time. Or maybe Konami will surprise us and give an early glimpse at the Tokyo Game Show in September.